Supplements Part Three: Fish Oil

Supplements Part Three: Fish Oil

08 August 2017

This is a series Coach Tash has written about different supplements, when and IF they are needed, and how to use them for your benefit. As you may know Nutrition is actually the very base of our Fitness Pyramid - and as such a good plan for fuel and recovery can make or break your athletic career!

We can’t make omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids in our bodies, so we need to get them from our diets.

It’s easy for us to get omega-6 fatty acids. These are found in plant oils, for instance, and factory-raised animals (which are fed a lot of corn and soy) will usually have a lot of omega-6 too.

But it’s hard for people in Western countries to get omega-3 fats from dietary sources. We eat a lot more processed foods and a lot less wild game and plants than our ancestors did. We rely heavily now on omega-6 vegetable oils.

We evolved with a fat intake ratio of about 1:1 omega-3 to omega-6 fatty acids. Now, it’s closer to 1:20.

Because omega-3s and omega-6s compete with each other for space in cell membranes and the attention of enzymes, the ratio matters more than the absolute amount consumed of either fat.